Hilarity Ensues

I will begin with the greatest headline I've ever seen: Is Jewish the New Black?
Came across it while reading the news, had to read the story.
http://www.theroot.com/views/jewish-new-black

As for local comedy, this morning I am going about my business, prepping my daily products, when I look over and notice that my SEAL buddy is doing push-ups. A litle odd, but not so odd. But it does gather a few looks from the others in the JOC as well. OK. He finishes his set. Nothing crazy.

But he didn't get up. He just stayed down at the front leaning rest (the starting up position of the push-up). So we have to ask. He says that he got a message on his computer that said drop.

He is pretty fresh from BUD/S and SEAL Qualification course where he would be told to drop pretty regularly until the instructor got tired. When he got to his team, he was the new guy and so there was a little bit of extra PT there too. So at this point he's been told to drop so often that, well, when a random computer message that appeared to be from a Senior NCO told him to drop... he did. And waited to be told to recover just as if he was still in a training environment.

While this was happening a Senior SEAL NCO watched and pretended not to notice. The young SEAL officer assumed that it was this particular NCO that dropped him for some unknown error. After a few minutes the Senior NCO walked out to do something without acknowleding his tiring officer. He came back. A smirk broke the surface. Then a smile.

The red-faced officer got up. We're still not sure who it was that actually sent him the message to drop, but we know it wasn't the purported sender.

A few of the other Senior NCOs took pity on him and explained that he isn't in a training environment anymore. An enlisted man, even a Senior NCO, will not drop someone who outranks them in the real world. In the real world, push-up may work as correction for young lower enlisted. If an Senior NCO or Officer screws up to that point, then a firm word in private or paperwork is in order.

He was getting kind of bored at his desk so the push ups were probably good for him anyway.

Dinner was also funny because I ate with some of the senior NCOs, warrant officers and one of the senior officers. It was both an enlightening and hysterical griping/planning session.

I did not get ice cream today but I did yesterday. One scoop. But it was one KBR scoop. None of the KBR employees would last long at an actual Baskin Robbins. They are very generous with the scoop. Two scoops here is a quart back home.

I don't know why everyone is so down on KBR.

That said, I just got my first case of Kosher MREs. Finally. One case is only good for about a week, but the gears are now in motion. What I really need to do is get the point of contact that our Chaplain uses and go directly to that person.

The other good news was that I've been cleared from my higher headquarters to really gather information on future plans here and set things up/make recommendations for how we'll support it.

I have to be careful because the good idea fairy and I are very close friends. This can get me into trouble. Fortunately my partner is a little more comfortable speaking freely to me about his ideas and input and I have some other people here I can bounce ideas off of.

The only problem is differentiating between rumors and actual plans.

As my Marine friend here said, life can be a giant game of telephone sometimes.

To avoid the silly miscommunications, face to face meetings are often helpful. So I went over and met my counterpart at the SOF Air Component last night. Walked over after my shift to say hi. Chatted for about two hours. She was nervous, her first time here, a little overwhelmed. I realized that although in my seat I'm not necessarily that busy, it gives me time to sit back and monitor how things are for the other weather folks. So I shared some stories, had some ideas on how she could find some new efficiencies, and work with her partner better. One of my "Captain" moments.

Hope I helped.

I guess we'll find out.